Proposed Change to All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) Plugin

We would like to propose a change to the ASAS VStar plugin and would like to hear your comments. The proposal is to change the band/filter for the observations loaded from an ASAS light curve file to the V band.

Background:

The All Sky Automated Survey has been capturing photometric measurements for many years and has undergone a number of generations. A complete history is found on their website. This is an important survey for many AAVSO observers since it covers the southern sky very well as well. It also covers magnitudes often observed by our members. There is a link to their light curve data from VSX.

VStar has had a plugin to import observations from an ASAS text file for some time. In an ASAS light curve file, observations are split into datasets that correspond to different technical configurations of the ASAS equipment. However, they are through a standard V filter. The plugin creates observations now with a project specific filter/band designation of ASAS-1, -2, -3 or -4 that correspond to the dataset. This allows the user to examine and select based on the dataset. However, this hides the fact that the V filter is being used. We propose to use filter/band V and move the dataset designation to another field or the comments. The user would still be able to select only one or more datasets using the selection tools in the observations pane.

While it is true that ASAS has collected observations with an I filter, those are older observations and not practically available from their website. Should this situation change, the ASAS plugin would be enhanced to generate V or I.

Thanks to those of you who read this rather lengthy description. Please let us know what you think.